Nothing brings momentum to a screeching halt quicker than legal action. This is the prospect Schedule 1 is facing as it’s being deemed too similar to Movie Games S.A.’s Drug Dealer Simulator 1 & 2 franchise, prompting a full investigation into the game.
Whereas people were hyping themselves up for Warzone’s Verdansk or continuing to enjoy the success of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Steam indie title Schedule 1 was out here dominating. The game is about making and dealing drugs and all the rigors that come with the crime life. This is apparently appealing as Schedule 1 hit a peak of over 400,000 players and continues to bring in wheelers and dealers each day.
Everything was going great, but on April 3, publisher Movie Games S.A. demanded an investigation into TVGS’ Schedule 1.
Steam Sensation Schedule 1 Under Investigation For Infringement
Evidence on the investigation surfaced on the website papbiznes, featuring a document entitled: “MOVIE GAMES SA (17/2025) Decision to commence investigation against the creators of the Schedule 1 production for claims regarding the infringement of the Issuer’s IP and related to committing an act of unfair competition against it.”
Movie Games S.A. has its own series of drug-dealing games: Drug Dealer Simulator 1 and Drug Dealer Simulator 2. While the name is more overt in its goal, both titles have attracted thousands of players respectively.
The legal document mentions: “Potential infringement of the Issuer’s intellectual property rights and activities that may bear the characteristics of unfair competition have been identified.” Ergo, Schedule 1 is too similar to the Drug Dealer Simulator series—similar to Nintendo’s lawsuit with Palworld.
Proceedings began as soon as Schedule 1 released on March 24 and featured: “A comparative analysis of the Company’s IP, which includes, m.in, Drug Dealer Simulator and Drug Dealer Simulator 2 and the Schedule 1 project.”
The investigation is strongly looking into: “Elements of the game’s plot, mechanics, as well as UI – User Interface.” It finishes by saying: “The Issuer will immediately inform about further actions related to the pursuit of claims regarding the infringement of the Issuer’s IP and the act of unfair competition in subsequent current reports.
We’ll continue to monitor the situation and see how TVGS responds to the investigation. Check out our official Forum or subscribe to our Insider Gaming newsletter so you don’t miss out on any developments.
If you’re enjoying Schedule 1, why don’t you check out its roadmap and plans, and if it’s available on console.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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DDS wishes it was half the game Schedule I is, this is purely about another developer being mad their 2nd game tanked. They’re not suing the other 4 titles or the title they copied themselves.
They’re just mad that people are excited about this game and not theirs. It’s a PR stunt – there’s very little “IP” to infringe on anyway.
Another lawsuit by a washed up dev, that is sure to give everyone confidence in their future products….not.
This mind of BS lawsuits is at best a one time opportunity to cash out at the cost of the entirety of your reputation. But for this noname dev that probably doesn’t matter since they got no reputation, just like they got no bitc…
Hope it gets thrown out quickly. Concept is similar but that’s not grounds for legal action, otherwise FROM would be on every dark fantasy difficult game.
there are literally hundreds of drug dealing games out there, where’s the lawsuit for them? if anything, schedule 1 reminded me more of the 17 year old classic flash game, StickRPG, than anything else.
DDS 1/2 are hot garbage. S.A. games should be ashamed at the rehashed garbage that they spit out ever release. And now preying on a solo indie dev because they were able to do a similar concept – but better? What a joke. Take ’em out back.
It’s rather bold for developers who only saw the success they did with DDS1 due to blatant false advertising to try and sue a game that is actually doing the things they promised and never did. Scumbags, pure and simple. DDS1 has changed very, very little since being first released.
The overlapping mechanics were already more fleshed out and in depth than the comparable mechanics in DDS1, in the pre release demo of schedule 1. And schedule 1 has expanded on that, while the devs of DDS1 abandoned development as soon as the hype died down and moved on to another game.
As other comments have mentioned, this is especially bold when you take into consideration that the drug mixing mechanics and Ui in DDS1 (which are some of the things they are going after schedule 1 for) was pretty much 1-1 copied from another game (think it was called the chemist or something, idc enough to check).
these men in the comment section need to touch grass and stop defending theft lol. Poor wittle men have no other argument than “wAsHeD Up” or overuse of the word mad and jealous. Poor wittle lifeless neckbeards
>Assassin’s Creed Shadows continued success
>needed saving by Tencent
>shutdown Ubisoft Leamington
“Success” isn’t what I’d call that.
Sounds like some devs just need to make better games, or actually listen to the player base.
Not sure what country this suit is being brought in but if it was the US this would get tossed pretty quick.
If that was the way ip infringement worked the guy who wrote the old text based game Drug Lord back in the late 90’s could sue both these guys into oblivion.
This is such a dumb and frivolous claim. Is the developer going to go out and sue all of the drug dealers in the world for copying their video game as well. They surely weren’t the first drug dealing game and schedule I definitely won’t be the last.
sad. if I ever find out who files the law suit I’ll never buy a product from them for at least 2 years.
Not the author saying assassin’s creed shadows ongoing success 🤔 . As the indie drug game out sells and out paces it. My god can insider gaming actually have a person who plays game make reviews and articles?
What? 2 games about distributing drugs are similar in execution? Imagine that.
This games 1000x better then there trash games I say everyone make sure you boycott them for trying to ruin an actual good game that there so jealous. This game the developer is adding more and more to this game to make it even better and if they ruin that I swear to God that I’ll definitely make sure the community knows and we will just support his next drop
Lol they actually did it. Dds is the Pubg to Schedule 1’s Fortnite 🤣 they actually did it
Unless I’m missing something, this definitely seems like obvious scene a faire, complainant does not own the concept of drug dealing, nor a copyright over it
So is no one else allowed to make a game about dealing drugs just because you made a trash game centered around it first? Never played DDS but I hear it sucks, don’t try to come after Schedule 1 because TVGS made a higher quality game that people actually like. It is no one’s fault but DDS’ that their game sucks and people would rather play Schedule 1.
Pathetic, you don’t own the genre or theme. Schedule 1 is a hit success. Movie Games SA needs a reality check. Let the community light them up.
Sounds like the Drug Dealer Sim Devs are a little jeleous.
Never heard of this game so I had no saying this don’t know if they’re in the right or in the wrong but I definitely be reading the comment section
Sounds like they are in the wrong here I don’t know nothing about any of these games but I’m going to go with the majority
Their all ripping off an old text based game that itself was copied countless times. You can’t sue someone because they make a game on the same genre you made a game in.
This lawsuit is nothing at all like Nintendo’s lawsuit against Palworld. Did the author not do any research, or do you all think all lawsuits are the exact same?
I’ve watched gameplay of schedule 1, the mechanics are almost exactly the same. If you ever played drug dealer simulator, you are hiding from the cops during specific times, you are meeting the buyer, you are cutting the product etc and plot. it is TOO similar. The only difference is multiplayer on schedule 1. Drug dealer simulator is single player.
Granted DDS is a very janky game. Im all for schedule 1 finding success but it needs to differentiate itself mechanics and plotwise
The game mechanics are pretty standard for the process of making and dealing drugs (in a video game) so I don’t see how they can own that. Same with the inventory system, it’s pretty similar to a lot of other games.
If this company wants to make claims on IP infringement, they are opening themselves up to lawsuits from many previous game devs who had similar ideas before them.
Remember when their game was announced and the entire steam page for them was full of false advertisement? They later had to remove all the missing features and never bother to add them?
They just mad someone has done a fun game to play and not that pile of shit their 2 games were.
Yeah should like DDS devs are jealous of Schedule 1’s success. It is my favorite drug simulator game and I hope it continues to gain more success. DDS devs need to take a page out of TVGS on how to properly make a game. Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out instantly.